Rob Bredow, SVP, Chief Creative Officer, Industrial Light & Magic

Rob Bredow is an Academy Award nominated VFX Supervisor who serves as SVP, Chief Creative Officer of Industrial Light & Magic. Bredow has a particular focus on the creative strategy for the storied visual effects company where he is responsible for the company’s overall creative strategy, innovation, and business development. Some of Bredows previous projects include Solo: A Star Wars Story, ILMxLAB’s story-based virtual reality experiment Trials on Tatooine, and films dating back to Independence Day. He chairs the Academy Software Foundation, and has previously served as CTO at Sony Pictures and Lucasfilm.

Jan Pinkava, Director of the Animationsinstitut/ FMX Conference Chair, Animationsinstitut, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg

Jan Pinkava has been a leader in animation storytelling for over thirty years.

At Pixar he wrote and directed 1997 Oscar-winning short film Geri's Game and was the creator and co-director of Pixar's Oscar-winning 2007 feature Ratatouille.

At Google, he was co-founder and Creative Director of the renowned Google Spotlight Stories project; working with leading technologists, artists and directors to create new forms of interactive storytelling for film, mobile and VR. The work won many prizes, including the first Emmy for outstanding innovation in interactive storytelling, and an Oscar nomination.

In June of 2023 Jan became Director of the Animationsinstitut Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, one of Europe’s leading schools for Animation, VFX and Interactive Media. He is learning German. Slowly.  

Solomon Rogers, Global Director of Innovation, Magnopus

In 2011, Sol founded REWIND, the UK’s leading immersive spatial design and innovation company, and led its leadership as CEO until its acquisition by Magnopus in 2021. Magnopus, founded in 2013 by Oscar winners Ben Grossmann and Alex Henning (HUGO CABRET), is known for its continuous innovation in the entertainment industry; its Emmy-nominated VR projects; its role as a leader in virtual production through its groundbreaking work on Disney’s THE LION KING (2019); and its pioneering work in building the spatial web.

Before REWIND, Sol was a senior university lecturer for 15 years in digital animation, VFX and emerging technology. He taught more than 1,300 students, wrote undergraduate and Masters degrees, and supervised PHDs during his tenure.

Sol is also Chairman of BAFTA’s Immersive Entertainment Advisory Group, and Chairman of Immerse UK – the first nationwide network for immersive companies working to make the UK the global leader in immersive technologies.

Sol considers Time the only thing of true value, and his greatest achievement is being a proud father of twins.